WASHINGTON — It’s week three on the job for newly hired Frederick City Police Chief Ed Hargis, and he’s kicking off his tenure with this directive to his patrol officers: “get out of the car.”
Hargis says a perfect time to engage with people in the community might be a Saturday afternoon, when a resident is mowing the lawn. He suggests that officers introduce themselves and ask the residents what their concerns are. Referring to the tensions in some communities across the country and how that’s exposed some divisions between police and those they serve, Hargis says, “Those types of positive contacts are what law enforcement needs right now.”
Hargis, who spent more than two decades in Camden, New Jersey and served as chief in Portsmouth, Virginia, has spent the first few weeks on the job introducing himself to his new community and attending neighborhood and civic group meetings.
“I’ve also been driving around at night in some of the neighborhoods, and just getting out of the car and talking to people that are sitting on their porches, and just get an overview of what’s happening here in Frederick,” he said.
Like many departments across the county, Frederick’s police department is testing body cameras. Hargis says his department will likely purchase 40 to start with. Checking with departments that have had the technology for two years or more, Hargis says he’s hearing from officers that they don’t like patrolling without the cameras anymore. He explains while the cameras put more pressure on police, they also help officers when a claim of misconduct is made.
“That camera changes the behavior of the officer and the citizen, and if the citizen makes a complaint, it’s very easy to go back to the camera and determine if the officer acted properly or not,” Hargis says.
There are still challenges with regards to body cameras: how to store the data, what will be accessible to the public, how will the images be used in court? All of those, he says, are questions that many departments are grappling with.
One thing he’d like the public to understand about police work, he says is, “ We’re taking a 25-year old, a 30-year old and putting them in situations that they haven’t experienced in their own lives yet, and we’re expecting them to make decisions to resolve society’s problems.”
With all the challenges that law enforcement provides, why do people choose a career that in Hargis’ words goes “from boredom to absolute chaos” in an instant? Hargis says ask any cadet, and they’ll tell you they went into the job to help people. For him, the decision came early. Very early.
“I was probably about four years old. I was introduced to an officer that let me play in the police car and turn the overhead light on and the spotlight on.” From then on, he said, he knew.
“I was either going to be a police officer or a firefighter: whoever hired me first was going to get me. Police got me first, and it’s been a 33-year career since then.” A career that’s led him to Frederick.
